Invoice Templates (Beta)

Invoice templates control how an entity's invoices look: the logo, which business and customer details print and where, the wording, and the line item columns. Each entity can have several templates, one of them the default, and you can choose a template per invoice or per customer. This article covers editing templates, the New Zealand invoice checks, and how templates are applied to invoices.

• The Templates list
• Editing a template
• New Zealand invoice checks
• Choosing a template for an invoice or customer
• Changing a template after invoices are sent
• What we're working on next

The Templates list

Go to Invoices → Templates. The list shows the templates for every entity in your current client filter, with the entity's default marked Default.

Every entity starts with a template called Standard, which matches the layout Prosaic invoices have always used. It's created the first time you invoice from the entity, so an entity you haven't invoiced from yet may not be listed.

Use the ⋯ menu on a row to:

• Duplicate a template as a starting point for a new one. The copy opens straight away.
• Make default, so new invoices from that entity use it.
• Delete a template. Invoices and customers that used it move to the default. An entity always keeps at least one template.

To start from scratch, select New template and choose the entity under the name.

Editing a template

Select a template to open the editor. The invoice is drawn at the same size and font as the PDF, and you edit it directly on the page.

Layout

The page has two rows above the line items (Header and Header row 2) and two below (Footer and Footer row 2). Hover over a row to choose 1 column, 2 or 3, and to align each column left, centre or right. Use Add header row or Add footer row for the second rows, and Remove row to take one away.

Wording and fields

Click into a column and type. Wherever you want a detail from the entity, invoice or customer, insert a field: type /   and pick one, or select Insert field to see them all. Fields appear as purple chips in the editor and are filled in on each invoice.

A few fields are worth knowing about:

• Legal name or Trading name decides which business name prints. Trading name uses the entity's first trading name, or the legal name if it has none. To print both, insert both, for example Legal name trading as Trading name.
• GST number prints only while the entity is GST registered.
• The three Payment fields print only when the invoice has a bank account chosen under Bank account & notes:
  • Account name is the name your customer pays to, for example KOWHAI CREATIVE LIMITED. It prints whatever is chosen in the invoice's own Account name box. If that box is blank, Prosaic uses the account holder name your bank reports, then the entity's name.
  • Bank account name is your own label for the account, for example Kōwhai Business Account. Most invoices don't need it.
  • Bank account is the bank and account number, for example 01-0505-0123456-00.
• The Standard template prints Pay to followed by the Account name, with the Bank account underneath.
• A line where every field is empty is left out, so a label such as GST never prints on its own.

Use B for bold and H for title-size text. Click a field chip and press Backspace to remove it.

Line item columns

Hover over the line items and select Columns. Drag columns to reorder them, tick or untick to show or hide them, and type a new heading to rename one, for example Hours / units instead of Qty. You can also click a heading on the page to rename it.

Description and Amount always show. Two options at the bottom let you leave Qty and Unit price blank when the quantity is 1, and show or hide the subtotal and GST above the total. Prosaic adds Prices include GST or Prices exclude GST above the table automatically.

Look

• Font: Geist (the default), Inter, IBM Plex Sans, Source Serif 4, Lora or IBM Plex Mono. All of them print te reo Māori macrons.
• Text size and Logo size sliders.
• Crop logo trims the logo for this template only. The entity's logo itself doesn't change. Upload or replace the logo on the entity's Invoice settings tab.
• Spacing: Compact or Standard.
• Footer: At the page foot or After the totals.

Invoices print in black and white, with the logo as the only colour.

Preview and save

Select Preview with sample values to see the invoice exactly as the PDF will print, filled in with your entity's details and a sample customer. Select Back to editing to carry on, and Save when you're done.

New Zealand invoice checks

IRD sets what a taxable supply information invoice must show, depending on its value. As you edit, Prosaic checks the template against a sample invoice over $1,000 and warns you, above the page, if something IRD needs is missing:

• Every invoice needs the seller's name or trading name.
• Over $200, it needs the seller's GST number, and either the GST amount or a statement that the total includes GST.
• Over $1,000, it also needs the buyer's name plus one identifier, such as their address, email or GST number.

Choosing a template for an invoice or customer

Each invoice prints with one template, chosen in this order:

1. the template you pick on the invoice;
2. the customer's own template, set on their contact record, if it belongs to the invoice's entity;
3. the entity's default.

On an invoice

The Template field sits under the entity and shows the template that will print. Pick another to use it for this invoice only.

When you pick a template that isn't the customer's own, tick Always use for [customer] to save it to their contact record as well, so their next invoices start with it.

On a customer's contact record

If a customer should always get a particular template, for example a trading name they know you by, set it once on their contact instead of picking it on every invoice:

1. Go to Workspace → Contacts and open the customer.
2. Select Edit.
3. In the Invoicing section, choose a template under Invoice template. Templates are grouped by entity, and each entity's default is marked Default.
4. Select Save changes.

From then on:

• New invoices to the customer from that template's entity start with it. You can still pick a different template on any one invoice.
• Invoices to the customer from other entities use their own entity's default, because a template belongs to one entity.
• Drafts where nobody picked a template follow the change until they're finalised. Finalised invoices keep the template they were issued with.
• To go back to the entity's default, choose Use the entity default. If the template is deleted, the customer goes back to the default automatically.

Recurring invoices and the invoice email

Recurring invoices have their own Template field, and every invoice they create uses it. If it's left empty, each invoice follows the customer's template or the entity default. See Recurring invoices (Beta).

The invoice email's header uses the business name the template prints, with the entity's logo.

Changing a template after invoices are sent

Finalising an invoice fixes which template it uses. Later changes to the customer's or entity's default don't move it. You can still choose another template on a finalised invoice if you need to.

The template's content isn't frozen, though. If you edit a template, or the entity's details change, every invoice using it prints with the new version the next time it's downloaded or emailed. The copy that was sent is kept: open the invoice and look under History for Previous PDF.

Invoices finalised before templates were switched on keep Prosaic's original layout.

What we're working on next

Templates are new, and what comes next depends on your feedback. On our list:

• Your own email message. Invoice emails use Prosaic's standard covering note today.
• Start from an invoice you already send. Upload a PDF of an existing invoice and have Prosaic set up a template to match it.
• An accent colour. Invoices print in black and white today, with the logo as the only colour.
• Templates through the public API. Invoices created through the API use the entity's default template for now.

Need help? Use the 💬 in-app help button to reach the Prosaic team, or email help@prosaic.works.